Gear folder for rotary presses



United States Patent Inventors Appl. No.

Filed Patented Assignee Priority GEAR FOLDER FOR ROTARY PRESSES 1 Claim, 7 Drawing Figs.a

U.S. Cl 270/77 in. CI B65h 45/16 Field of Search r 270/76- 48, 49, so, 51

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,881,816 10/1932 Meyer 270/78 2,019,658 11/1935 Crafts Primary Examiner- Lawrence Charles Attorney-Jones & Lockwood ABSTRACT: The apparatus provides for a folder to produce thick newspapers of for instance 144 pages or more. There is shown three webs fed from three reel stars to three rotary press printing units. The printing units have six plates in width and four page plates in circumference. Each printing unit therefore produces 24 pages printed recto and 24 pages printed verso. The webs of the three printing units run into a folder having three formers. There are drag roller groups which drag the strips from the formers and these brought together strips are led from the drag rollers to a 4/4 cutting blade cylinder having four cutting blades that cut the strips to page size against a 4/4 cutting groove or cutting rubber cylinder.

Patented Nov. '17, 1970 3,540,723

Sheet of 7 Fig. 1

Patented Nov. 17, 1970 3,540,723

Sheet i of 7 Patented Nov. 17, 1970 Sheet Patented Nov. 17, 1970 3,540,123

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' Patented Nov. 17, 1970 3,540,723

Sheet 5 of? Patented Nov. 17, 1970 Sheet 7 of 7 .wm rm 1 GEAR FOLDER ROTARY PRESSES I BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to a folder to produce thick newspapers of for instance l44 pages or more. Such heavy newspapers can be produced with conventional 2/1 or 3/2 gear folders only with great difficulties and at reduced speed. Normally, newspapers of large thickness are produced in collect runs whereby a first section is taken round the odd, i.e. 3/2 or 5/2, cutting or gear-folding cylinder and is then joined with a second section. The difficulties inherent in these methods are the cutting of so many webs, the danger of shredding, and the varying pulsating web tension due to the thick collected sections enlarging the cylinder surface.

SUMMARY OF THE lNVENTlON It is an object of the invention to avoid these defects and to provide .a gear folder with which it is possible to fold said heavy newspapers without disturbances at high folding speeds and in continuous printing.

According to the invention. the problem is solved such that contrary to these known methods the collecting procedure is completely separated from the cutting procedure by known means providing constant tension for the web fed in and making shredding of thecollected sections impossible because they do not pass the cutting point for a second time. Collecting is carried out by means of a special collecting cylinder with I collected product is effected at substantially reduced speed.

Another big advantage is achieved as through the double collect procedure the cutting force is reduced by 50 percent since only halfthe number'of webs has to be cut.

Another feature of the invention shows on both sides ofthe transfer cylinder one gear-folding cylinder running each at half speed which allows the copy stream being distributed to two deliveries. Each gear-folding cylinder is preferably somewhat larger in circumference than to corresponding four copy lengths in order to provide space for the grippers or not to reduce the speed too much. Both gear-folding cylinders rotate clockwise, the left gear-folding cylinder being equipped with two rotating folding blades which perform the usual star with three pointsJ'At the right gear-folding cylinder the two upper points of the three-point star are eliminated according to the invention by means ofa special gear with the result that the collected copies may run round this folding blade cylinder without interruption until they are pushed into the folding rollers as is normal practice. I

In fact it is known to separate the collecting process from the cutting process and there are magazine presses with which collecting cylinders having five segments in circumference were used which could collect one once and twice, if the magazine press plate cylinders carried four small plates in circumference. Magazine presses of this kind, however, use a jaw-folding cylinder without pins instead of the said transfer cylinder-incorporating pins and convey the products to slowdown drums having grippers. Magazine presses are basically different already from the point of view of their application. As many thin products as possible are requested which is the reason why these folders are constructed with double, threefold and four-fold widths and very often even with split delivery. There is always a jaw fold. Thecollecting cylinder has pins and serves'as the folding blade cylinder. The following cylinder carries folding jaws and no pins. The grippers of the slowdown cylinder take over a folded product from the jaw and decelerate it according to the speed of the delivery belts. In comparison, is an object of the folder according to the invention to produce copies as thick as possible. It is I cross-fold the sheet being taken over by the grippers.

The gear-folding cylinders do not rotate at full speed but at a reduced rate of revolution. The right gear-folding cylinder finally has a special gearing which causes the folding blades to protrude only once instead of a number of times.

The gear folder according to the invention ensures a much higher hourly performance in spite of heaviest products since the actual folding process takes place later at reduced speed. Folding at reduced speed was so far heard of only for the third fold, that is the second length fold, whereby either for double production two third-fold aggregates worked alternately at half speed or one third-fold aggregate was switched to half speed by means of change-over gears for collect production.

The first cross fold, Le. the second fold after the length fold is carried out with this folder also at full unreduced speed, which is novel, and thus permits for heaviest products high speeds so far unknown for the newspaper and tabloid production.

The construction according to the invention is hereinafter described by way'of example with reference to the accompanying drawings but it is clearly to be understood that the invention is by no means restricted to the details of this embodiment.

FIG. 1 shows a diagrammatical view of a newspaper rotary press with three reel stars, three printing units having six plates in width and four plates in circumference and one folder,

FIG. 2 shows a possible cylinder arrangement of the folder,

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatical elevational view of as viewed in HO. 2 the right gear-folding blade cylinder with modified folding blade movement.

FIG. 4 a longitudinal section through the gear of the modified folding blade movement in FIG. 3,

I FIG. 5 a folder having the circumferential ratio 3:323:4z3 of the cylinders,

FIG. 6 a folder having cylinder ratio 2:323:41222 and I FIG. 7 is an elevational view of the Geneva mechanisms in FIG. 3 with engaging roll wheel having certain angle indications thereon.

ln FIG. 1 the webs ofthe three printing units 1. 2 3 run into the folder with three formers 4. The plate cylinder diameters have twice the normal size than is' normal for ordinary newspaper presses with the result that a plate for each newspaper page wraps around the cylinder only with instead of Each plate cylinder thus carries four newspaper pages in circumference and six instead of normally four plates side by side across the width. Each printing unit therefore produces 24 pages printed recto and 24 printed verso. With the invented folder capable of collecting once and twice, each printing unit produces up to 48 newspaper pages. The complete press consisting of only three printing units and the invented folder produces newspapers with a maximum of l44 pages or tabloids of 288 pages.

The webs 5 coming from the three formers 4 are joined in the folder as per- FIG. 2 and are dragged by drag roller groups 6. A 4/4 cutting blade cylinder with four cutting blades cuts the strips to page size against a 4/4 cutting groove or cutting rubber cylinder 8 conveying by four sets of pins 9 the severed sheets to the 5/4 collecting cylinder 10 having five segments and five sets of pins 11. During the single collecting process, every other sheet runs a second time around the collecting cylinder 10 before it is conveyed to the 4/4 transfer cylinder 12 provided with two sets of pins 13.

During the double collecting process, the sheets run three times around the collecting cylinder 10 whereby all four consecutive newspaper pages are collected on top of each other before the bundle consisting of twelve sections (three formers, collected four times) is transferred to a set of pins of the transfer cylinder 12. Due to the fact that there is a gap of 90 on the transfer cylinder 12 after each bundle during single collection and a gap of 270 during double collection, the gearfolding blade cylinders '14, 15 at the leftand right-hand side of the transfer cylinder 12, as viewed in FIG. 2, may run at reduced, that is halfspeed. They seize the bundle revolving with cylinder 12 by means of grippers 16, 17 whereby the bundle slips somewhat in the grippers when it is taken over. Stops 18 avoid uncontrolled slipping during the speed jump. It is advisable for the gear-folding blade cylinders 14, 15 to be somewhat larger than the blade and cutting cylinders 7, 8 respectively with 4/4 circumference in order that the speed jump is less marked during slowdown and the tail of the slowly moving product is not caught up by the front end of the following product on the transfer cylinder 12.

During single collection, one copy is pushed by the left gearfolding blade cylinder 14 and the following copy by the right gear-folding blade cylinder 15 into the folding rollers 19, 20 from where they are alternately delivered by means of fans 21 22 and conveyor belts 23, 24.

During double collection, only half the amount of folded newspapers is produced which is delivered to one conveyor belt. The gear-folding blade cylinders 14, 15 as per FIG. 2 are abnormally large as a complete newspaper page requires only about one-fourth of the circumference (instead of one-half as usually). As they revolve at half speed relative to the plate cylinder having four plates in circumference, they carry two rotating folding blades 25, 25' or 26, 26' respectively operating alternately.

During the double collecting process, there is one copy per plate cylinder rotation which is to be folded. A full plate cylinder rotation corresponds to half a gear-folding blade cylinder rotation. During the single collecting process, there is one copy to half a plate cylinder rotation. The second copy is conveyed by means of the second set of pins on the transfer cylinder 12 to the second gearfolding blade cylinder.

During noncollect production,'the gear-folding blade cylinders 14, 15 are switched to full speed. Each of the two gearfolding blade cylinders l4. 15 receives per revolution two of the four copies per plate cylinder rotation.

The left gear-folding blade cylinder 14 is equipped with two rotating folding blades 25, 25' which are facing each other and perform the said star with three points of the hypocycloid 27. Due to the large cylinder diameter, the hypocycloid 27 has also practically doubled its size with the result that very large folding blades can be used. This helps to solve the problem of producing extremely thick products. That is to say, the large folding blades 25, 25' or 26, 26' respectively permit large immersing depths into the folding rollers 19,20 which again permits the use of abnormally large folding rollers 19, 20. It is obvious that thick products can be pushed by little force in between large folding rollers whereas the pushing in between small rollers, Le. rollers close together is much more difficult. The products are held by two sets of grippers 16, 17 on the gear-folding blade cylinders 14, 15 at this point. The use of grippers has several advantages as compared to pins: Further ugly pin holes are avoided in the copy; and a gripper releases the complete paper when it is opened. Pins would have to be retracted entirely over their whole length before the bottom sheets are released. This retraction cannot take place suddenly as a certain angle of rotation of the cylinder is necessary which is contrary to the requirements of the gear-folding cylinder since the sheet front must practically run momentarily backwards relative to the cylinder as soon as the folding process starts. Lastly, grippers permit a certain slip with the result that sheet transfer is possible with a speedjump whereas pins would slit the copy.

FIGS. 3 and 4 show the right gear-folding blade cylinder 15 which outwardly looks exactly like the left gear-folding blade cylinder 14 and also rotates clockwise. Contrary to the left cylinder 14, the copies have to be taken almost a complete rotation around the cylinder for the right-hand gear-folding blade cylinder 15 which cannot be done right off due to its folding blade motion having the hypocycloid star 27 provided with the known three points. The protruding folding blades 25, 25' would twice push the copies far away from the folding blade cylinder 14 prior to the folding process. The folding blade motion is therefore modified such that the folding blades 26, 26' only protrude between the folding rollers 20 and otherwise remain within the cylinder 15. Thus they perform a modified hypocycloid 28. As the folding blade gears 29 either revolve in a stationary hollow wheel or around a stationary center gear wheel via an intermediate gear wheel which is kinematically the same motion, the folding blade movement can be modified by means which are actually known through additional turning of the hollow or center gear wheel 31. The rotation of these gear wheels in direction of cylinder rotation reduces the rotation of the folding blade shafts 32 and thus the number of points of the hypocycloid. Each folding blade gear wheel 29 meshes with a certain center gear wheel 31 or 31' respectively. Each center gear wheel 31, 31' remains only stationary during the moment of folding and is otherwise turned per cylinder rotation by 240 in cylinder running direction resulting in that the two upper hypocycloid points disappear. The movements of both center gear wheels 31, 31' are staggered by 180 and remain stationary once per cylinder rotation. The movements are for instance generated by actually known means via two gear crank drives which face each other by 180 and are driven by a common eccentric gear wheel. The eccentric gear wheel revolves at folding cylinder speed on the folding cylinder shaft 35, which is supported in the frames I and II. The additional turning of the hollow or center gear wheels 31,31 can also be initiated by means ofan index gear. Two five-part Geneva mechanisms 33, 33' for instance serve as index gears which are supported in frame [I and have a transmission of 3: 10 relative to a center gear Wheel 31, 31' each. A 72 rotation of the Geneva mechanisms 33, 33 causes a rotation of the center gear wheel 31, 31' of 240 due to the subsequent intermediate gears relative to the blade shaft. This corresponds to two folding blade revolutions. The phases of Geneva mechanisms 33, 33 are staggered by l and are driven by means of engaging pieces or rolls 34, 34' and 34" staggered by 120 rotating at a third of the rate of revolution of the gear-folding blade cylinder which extends the operating period of the Geneva mechanism 33,33 from a lO8 cylinder rotation to a 324 cylinder rotation providing a rest of 36 during the moment of folding. The motion of folding blades 26, 26' produced with this gear is shown in FIG. 3. The blades 26, 26' protrude only during the moment of folding whereas the two upper points of the normal hypocycloid 27 have disappeared. Thus there is nothing to hinder the sheets to run round the gear-folding cylinder 15 up to the mo ment of folding. The intermediate gear wheel 30 serves for reversing.

Reference is now made to FIG. 7.

As five slots are provided in the Geneva mechanism wheels 33, 33 they are disposed with an angle of 72 relative to each other. With a normal Geneva mechanism drive, which is to operate without jerks the engaging pieces or rolls 34, 34' and 34 have to enter strictly radially, i.e. the center line of the slot and the radius vector between engaging roll 34 and the axis of engaging roll wheel 83 are vertical above each other. At the moment when the one engaging roll 34 submerges in the one slot and the other engaging roll 34" emerges from the other slot, both these slots are symmetrical to the center line ofthe Geneva mechanism wheel and the engaging roll wheel, their angle of elevation from the center being 36. The theoretical angle of elevation of the radius vector between engaging roll 34 and the axis of the engaging roll wheel 83 therefore had to be l80 36 54. In reality, this angle of elevation, however, can only be 60, i.e. /2 as the three engaging rolls 34, 34' and 34 are spaced evenly around the circumference of the engaging roll wheel 83. The difference between the theoretical and real angle of elevation is 6". The slots 80 of the Geneva mechanism wheels 33, 33' are defined by parallel walls from the entrance point 81 inwardly. The diameter of Geneva mechanism wheel 33 is larger and the walls of the slots 80 expand outwards arcuately with a radius of curvature which is equal to the effective radius of the engaging roll diameter.

At the moment when the engaging rolls 34 and 34" are in a symmetrical position relative to the Geneva mechanism wheel 33 they are about in the center of these arcuately curved sections 82 and 82'.

While engaging roll 34 covers an angle range of 6 in order to reach the radial entrance point 81, the engaging roll 34 moves with 6 in the same direction of rotation as the engaging roll wheel 83 in order to then leave the arcuately curved section 82.

Thus, the Geneva mechanism wheel is obstructed in its rotabecause the engaging roll 34 is revolving on curved section 82'. Only after the engaging roll 34 has submerged in theparallel-walled part ofslot 80, is the Geneva mechanism wheel 33 free to rotate. Its movement is forced on to it by engaging roll 34. The angle range of 2 times 6 12 of the engaging roll wheel 83 is geared to a three times larger angle range by means of the said subsequent intermediate gears driving the folding blade shaft, whereby a rest of the center gear for the folding blade shaft of 36 during the moment offolding is provided.

This rest causes the modified hypocycloid curve 28 to be just as slim during'folding as the normal hypocycloid 27. Larger lateral movements of the folding blades 26, 26 which are undesirable are thus avoided and accurate folding of the signatures is obtained.

Gear folders according to the invention are not limited to the embodiment in FIG. 2 showing the cylinder ratios 4:4:5:4:4:4. The cutting cylinders may also be smaller whereby the cylinder ratio would be 3:3:5:4:4:4. Heavy newspapers could for instance also be printed on ordinary printing units with plate cylinders carrying four plates in width and two plates of l80 around the circumference whereby a respective number of printing units or webs operates with one folder. In this case the gear-folding cylinders have normal size which would be about plate cylinder size and carry only one rotating folding blade. In this case too, the right cylinder must receive additional gearing for the folding blade because the products must run too far around this folding cylinder. lf thin newspapers are to be produced by the same folder, it is possible to have the gear-folding cylinders rotating at full speed instead ofat half speed by means ofsimple change-over gears. In such cases it will be advisable for the transfer cylinder circumference to be a little larger in order to gain space for the grippers to submerge between the products. The transfer cylinder will also have to carry twice the amount of pins. The collecting cylinder circumference could also be designed a little too large and this way somewhat separate the copies in two steps. Another solution avoids separation of gear-folding cylinders and additional gearing for the right gear-folding cylinder by installing four rotating folding blades for four plates in circumference and two rotating folding blades for two plates in circumference in the 4/4 or 2/2 gear-folding cylinder respectively. Split delivery will then be obtained by means of two fans which mesh one with another. It is also possible to design the gear-folding cylinders as 3/2 cylinders with three rotating folding blades and three sets of grippers if for small formats 2/2 cylinders are too small and weak and there is not enough space for 4/2 cylinders which is shown in FIG. 5 on the example of a 3:3:3:4:3 folder. The 3/2 cylinder 50 with its three grippers 51, 52, 53 and three folding blades 54, 55. 56 without additional gearing revolves at a speed reduced by 50 percent at collect production. With normal 2/2 plate cylinders each 3/2 cylinder 57, 58, 59 revolves at 2/3 speed and the 3/2 gearfolding cylinder 50 only at X a A1 speed. Thus, 360 plate cylinder rotatlon equal I20 gear-folding cylinder rotation as a consequence of which three rotating folding blades 54, 55, 56 and three sets of grippers 5l, 52, 53 are spaced at I20.

Another split delivery can be obtained by disposing two 2/2 gear-folding cylinders 6 l, 62 above each other at the left-hand side of the transfer cylinder 63 which alternately transports the copies in between special folding rollers 65, 66 and to deliveries 67, 68. Therefor, the folding blades 69, 70 or 71, 72 respectively suitably have an internal transmission of 2:1 to avoid that their hypocycloid points meet the transfer cylinder 63. FIG. 6 shows this folder with the cylinder ratio 2:3:3:4:2:2 chosen as an example.

The invention is not limited to the particular embodiments herein shown and described; there is a large number of possibilities, however, always based on the principle of reduced folding speed even if for instance the cutting and collecting process is not carried out with separated cylinder groups.

We claim:

1. In a gear folder for newspaper rotary presses the improvement comprising separate cylinder means for cutting, collecting, transferring from the collecting cylinder means and right and left gear-folding. blade cylinder means disposed with respect to the transfer cylinder means from which they receive collected signatures, said gear-folding blade cylinder means having grippers for take over of the collected signatures from the transfer cylinder means and said gear-folding blade cylinders being rotated at a reduced circumferential speed for the first and only cross fold during collect production,

said right gear-folding blade cylinder having a circumference of four copy lengths and having two rotating folding blade means having operating means moving the folding blades to describe a modified hypocycloid having only one hypercycloid point;

said means moving the folding blades of the right gear-folding blade cylinder including gear wheel means which remain stationary only during the moment of folding and including means rotating the gear wheel means in said right gear-folding blade cylinder direction causing the disappearing of two out of three hypocycloid points; and

said means rotating said gear wheel means in said right gearfolding blade cylinder direction including two five-part Geneva mechanisms revolved by three engaging pieces spaced having means revolving them amounting to only the third rate of revolution of the gear-folding blade cylinder.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3 540 723 Dated November 17, 1970 In Hans-Bernhard BOIza-Schunemann and Otto Weschenfelder It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Page 1, change priority date to -1V1arch 30, 1968--.

Signed and sealed this 30th day of March 1971.

(SEAL) Attest:

EDWARD M.FLETCHER,JR. WILLIAM E. SCHUYLER, JR. Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents 

